The shooting of this Portuguese feature film begin in September, after 4 weeks of filming the prospect is trying to submit it to festivals in early 2015 and the ambition that the movie has an audience and this can only be achieved with a distributor.
Why you remembered to write a screenplay titled " squatter man" ? What is behind this idea ?
Luís Campos : The first version of the script I wrote was in 2008 , the title was "squats" , not " man squatter ". Was based on a more or less true story about a community of squatters in Barcelona, I found it interesting and I started writing the script . The text has evolved, there were new versions, however since being in London , around 2010-2012 , I discovered this plasmic phenomenon is termed "squater man ." Scientists who studied claim that it was something that happened 10 thousand years ago, it is a visible form of heaven in various parts of the world, because they began to be pictorial representations and later gave him the name "squater man ." It is a kind of human figure, like a " stick man " , is the very basic design of the human body, arms, torso and legs and there are several representations of this form all over the planet on the same date at the time of the Neolithic when I found out about this phenomenon the " squatter man" thought it was a great parallel between this phenomenon and the history of occupation that I was trying to write and started design it, draws it from there .
After you transported this story for our country , now you're gonna shoot it in Portugal .
LC : If the initial script started this story because it is a community occupiers in Barcelona, with the passage of time has evolved centered on a person who returns to his hometown and tries to start a some sort of community occupies, this act generates a group in its surroundings , the first version was not thought to be filmed in Portugal, was faster to adapt to our country, to reach the parallelism that I mentioned.
You already showed a small excerpt of what it looks like a caveman, which does not implement this idea in any way of what you just said that is the script of the film is all about.
LC : That opening sequence of the film managed to film it with the help of some friends, with the assistance of a production company of the university where I took the course. I have been to Portugal for a week in the Serra da Estrela, and filmed this initial sequence with some savings I made in Amsterdam, which supposedly is at that time of the Neolithic , where the phenomenon occurs and there is the reaction of these humans of what they saw and the worship that start paying after this vision. All the rest of the film will not have any direct relationship with this snippet, is more to serve as an analogy, a metaphor for everything that will follow the film .
You initiated a campaign of crowdfunding to help raise financial support to complete this feature.
LC : Exactly. I have a group of friends, the technical team, who want to help me finnish this project, I have some actors who want to contribute what they can, ie , without payment of any kind and I am also trying to insert myself in a the activities of the festival Arouca cinema. I want to also get some involvement of the local community, of Drave, Alvarinho, is a village that is completely deserted, has houses of shale, which no longer one lives, and this story of the film that I lack filming, the character will occupy this area that is deserted. We tried the crowdfunding campaign because despite getting almost everything at zero cost and get free equipment, have to ensure that the people who will help me have a place to eat, sleep, and transportation and was in this sense that we tried to arrange financing. The crowdfunding campaign closed, went wrong, but it was good to learn. When I want to perform some similar 'll do it differently , I do not know if for movie I´ll go back to do it, I think not, but it was an attempt, like so many others since the script was first developed to try to make it one reality. Continue with the idea to start shooting in September and now we are probing any chance of support to meet those expenses that are unavoidable .
Have you participated in other projects as screenwriter, but it remains difficult to make films for young people in Portugal like you? Even taking into account that there are new technologies that somehow are more dynamic and imply a lower cost .
LC : For young people like me who have, or feel the need to do something in a medium like cinema, should do it. Nowadays this all easier, because the equipment is more affordable, unlike other times when they used film and it was expensive to shoot a minute. The film unlike painting, or literature, does not depend on a single person to build an idea , or put it into practice, is a collective work, and after all, when a group of friends want to do in two, or three days a film they do it, is not difficult, but it also involves some costs, either in Portugal or somewhere else. In terms of funding , I think it is not easy for those who do not have a route, I will not say a statute, but some curriculm is not easy covet any of these levels, but I think this should not be an aspect that make you lose the will to do something.
As a script writer, what do you think of the fact the statement that one of the weaknesses of many Portuguese films is precisely the script. Do you share this idea, or not at all.
LC : I think the film is universal, must be established a public for all kinds of movies. You could say that maybe in Portugal has been more constant creation, from the point of view of the script there has been a kind of privilege for a certain type of script , I will not say it can be better or worse, but there has been much variety, no doubt . I think we all agree on it and continue to show people in the mood to write scripts, because only creating and materializing a film that arrives to the public is what may create room for constant developments, innovation and improvement of creation.
http://www.squatterfactory.com
